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January 2018

On Jan 31, Save Our System, No Justice No Pride, Black Youth Project 100, and others packed Metro's board meeting. Speakers charge Metro is trying to "solve their problems on the backs of the riding public, and trying to fund themselves by soaking poor residents while developers ride for free with huge projects made possible by Metro.

Trump's State of the Union address drew protesters who lined both probable motorcade routes, booring as his motorcade passed. As soon as it did, protesters turned their backs on Trump's SOTU and left, some dispersing and others marching away. There were even calls for a TV boycott of the speech in an effort to deplatform Trump.

Protest WORKS: on Jan 24, under pressure from No Justice No Pride, the Capitol Pride board announced "substantial changes" in its leadership, including the removal of a board member who slandered No Justice No Pride as "terrorists." In addition, Capitol Pride has agreed to impose "sponsorship guidelines" that hopefully will mean the end of such sponsors as Wells Fargo.

The 27th of January was the anniversary of Donald Trump signing Executive Order 13769, also known as Muslim Ban 1.0. This triggered massive airport protests and urban marches a year ago. This year in DC, the march gathered at the White House to oppose Trump's current Muslim Ban, and was met there by the "People's March on Washington," a much larger march, from the WWII Memorial demanding Trump be impeached.Both marched together to Trump Hotel, where they joined with WERK for Peace's "intersectional" GLBTQ dance party.

On the 26th of January, Bijan Gaisar's family and friends spoke at a massive protest in front of the US Dept of the Interior, demanding the names of the two US Park Police officers who shot him dead. On Friday, Nov 17, 2017, US Park Police approached his vehicle with drawn guns after a chase that began over a fender bender in which he had been the victim, struck from behind. At the end of the chase, he may have seen the guns, reacted, and tried to escape with his life.

On the 26th of January, DC area Kurds and their supporters marched on the White House to demand that the US not support Turkey's offensive against Rojava and instead impose a no-fly zone.For a week US ally Turkey has been bombing and shelling the Kurdish town of Afrin, even though the Kurdish YPG was the main fighting force in the regional war against Daesh(ISIS). Turkey's theocratic President Erdogan may of course prefer Daesh to autonomous Kurds.

Dear Radio Friend, The latest Shortwave Report (January 26) is up at the website http://www.outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml in 3 forms- (new) HIGHEST QUALITY (160kb)(33MB), broadcast quality (13MB), and quickdownload or streaming form (6MB) (28:59) Links at page bottom (If you have access to Audioport there is a highest quality version posted up there {33MB}

John Goldman is a finance manager working for the DC Public Schools who has a history of posting racist and pro-rape screeds under the name "Jack Murphy." He has been positively identified by a number of photographs, at least one showing him with known fascist and Deploraball organizer Jack Posobiec. That photo was taken at an "escape the room" event and clearly shows John Goldman AKA Jack Murphy with Jack Posobiec. As of this posting, John Goldman has reportedly been placed on "adminstrative leave" while the schools figure out what to do about the stench his Internet activity has raised.

Jan 20, 2018, much of the Federal government's non-cooercive portions shut down on the anniversary of Trump's Inauguration. ICE, the FBI, and the military are not included in the shutdown. Meanwhile, protesters hit the streets all over DC. There was a satirical vigil for a broken window at the same Starbucks that got trashed on J20-2017, another Women's March, and a culminating banner drop between the flagpoles in front of Union Station.

On the 19th of January, migrant rights activists held a protest demanding that ICE and other agencies cease and desist targetting known organizers for deportation orders. One of the speakers was Maru Mora Villalpando of Northwest Detention Center Resistance, who received a no-warning deportation order even though ICE did not have a active case against her.

On the 18th of January, the US Attorney's Office filed a "notice of intent to proceed" against only 59 of the until now 188 remaining defendents from the DisruptJ20 protests a year ago. They have stated they want to focus on a "smaller core group" so this fight is by no means over. The remaining 59 J20 defendents need your support now as much as ever.